Petr Cech: ‘Arsenal out of Premier League title race’

Arsenal trailed to goals from Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane at the interval but Sanchez’s introduction saw a much-improved second half from the Gunners and a goal from Danny Welbeck, assisted by the substitute.

Georginio Wijnaldum scored the victor in stoppage time to seal all three points for Liverpool from a beautifully executed counter attack.

“Everybody will come to the same conclusion, but I’m strong enough and lucid enough to analyse the impact, and I don’t deny that Alexis Sanchez is a great player”.

Sanchez, who was seen smirking during the Liverpool game, was once again furious after the match at Anfield and struggled to contain his anger.

Many of Wenger’s supporters would be hard pressed to support that decision to bench Sanchez and otherwise would have been thinking of the popular English idiom, “Do not cut off the nose to spite the face;” because that seemed to be Wenger’s case on Saturday. The Gunners will likely roll out the same old starting XI, ripe with a disappointing Alex Iwobi, a limited Francis Coquelin, and, if we are truly lucky, Theo Walcott.

One upshot of Chelseas failure to qualify for Europe last season is that, having lost two of their opening five Premier League matches, Antonio Conte switched to a three at the back formation. Wenger is expected to determine his Arsenal future before the end of March.

Wenger brought Sanchez on at the start of the second half and Arsenal nearly found a way back into the game within moments as Migolet touched a powerful Giroud header onto the bar and held the rebound.

“We were spot on, everybody was focused, and this is how it [was] especially first half”.

Ibrahimovic, fresh from scoring twice in United’s Wembley triumph over Southampton, had a wretched afternoon and not just because his second-half penalty, with the score at 1-1 was stopped by Artur Boruc, who gave an inspired performance.

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Liverpool appeared to be Chelsea’s main rival for the title until the turn of the year, but a string of poor results since has seen them drop to fifth.

“We can not ignore the things that happen around us but I am 100% optimistic again when I think about the Arsenal game – but I can not say I am in exactly the same mood as the start of the season (when they beat the Gunners 4-3 on the opening day)”. We analyzed it and that wasn’t enjoyable.

“If you have that many players not at their usual level each Premier League game will be hard. It’s not always going up”. Then there’s this, Wenger’s away record against good teams over the past four years. Yet, we know they are capable of changing their approach.

“We need to do things better”.